Project Management Essay examples

Project Management:
A Description
William R Gaines
INF 410: Project Management
Instructor Kurt Earnhart
November 12, 2012

Project Management: A Description Project management is the process of managing resources over specified time to accomplish a specific goal. Resources may be anything from money to manpower but will include all materials required to accomplish the desired goal. As the business world becomes ever more complex with technological advances and globalization, project management is rapidly becoming a highly sought after skill set. Businesses are dividing their goals both long term and short into smaller more manageable segments better known as projects with definite timelines and resource allocation. This provides for more efficient use of resources and more positive control over company objectives. Project management follows some very tried and true methods which we shall discuss throughout this paper. The first would be the life cycle that breaks the project into four separate stages: 1.Initiation, 2. Planning, 3. Execution and control and 4. Closure (Visitask, 2011). During the Initiation stage, the project scope is outlined via project charter and a project manager is appointed to oversee the project. As it implies, the planning stage is just that. Detailed plans are made including risk analysis a task assignment along with a timeline for each task. The third stage, execution and control is where the actual project is worked. Monitoring the various task of the project is performed to ensure the project stays on track. The final stage, closure occurs once the project objective has been met. The project manager provides written documentation depicting that all criteria for the project have been met and provides documentation of the project sponsors acceptance of the completed project. All remaining resources are released. Perhaps the most important stage of the project life cycle is planning (Larson & Gray, 2011). The more detailed and concentrated effort put into this stage the smoother and more efficient the rest of the project will move. Detailed and well thought out risk analysis will reduce or alleviate problems arising from unplanned but foreseeable events. Competent and realistic task scheduling will create a workable timeline. A clear and well communicated scope will ensure all project team members fully understand the project objectives. All these items demonstrate how significantly proper planning can improve the probability of achieving a successful outcome to a project. Project organizational dynamics may vary depending upon project size and type however the basics are the same. For a given project, there is a project sponsor who champions the project for the requesting entity. A project manager is assigned to oversee the project. The project sponsor function as the liaison between the project manager and the requesting entity. Assigned to the project will be a number of personnel. These personnel make up the project team and are answerable to the project manager. For larger teams, personnel may be separated into smaller teams based on work to be performed in which case each team would have a team leader. Efficient leadership is extremely important to successful project completion. Open and thorough communication is imperative. A good project manager will ensure that all team members are fully aware of the project objectives including deadlines and milestones. It is equally important to ensure that the project sponsor is kept aware of the continuous status of the project and has the opportunity to accept each phase of the project. This will reduce the probability of do-over requirements that will only increase project costs. One of the more challenging aspects of project management is building the project team. Team building requires an understanding but authoritative skill set. As a project manager, you must be able to influence the individual team members and to alter

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